Serving in the community: local and global


An important component of medical training at Emory is the opportunity to work with underserved patients, whether in local clinics for the homeless, at the publicly funded Grady Memorial Hospital, or in developing countries around the globe. Indeed, Emory attracts students and faculty who seek this type of experience and who step out as leaders to help solve problems and improve health for both individuals and populations.

  In this section

Helping those most in need

Recognition for service

Contributing to the economy

As Grady Hospital, Atlanta’s safety net hospital for indigent patients, has struggled to survive in the midst of a devastating financial crisis, Emory erased $20 million of more than $60 million in debt this past year that the Grady Health System owed the medical school for services rendered. The contribution came at a time of significant budgetary constraint for the school but fit in with the school’s more than century-long commitment to the large public hospital and the patients it serves. Emory medical faculty provide 85% of the care at Grady, with the remaining 15% provided by Morehouse School of Medicine. Last year, Emory faculty provided more than $21 million in uncompensated care at Grady. Emory physicians also provided more than $29 million in charity care at Emory’s own clinical facilities in Emory Healthcare

Helping those most in need

For at least the past decade, Emory medical students have coordinated a small weekly medical clinic in the Open Door Community near downtown Atlanta, with supervision from Emory faculty attending doctors. Students and faculty also help out regularlyat other free clinics in the city, including the Good Samaritan Clinic started by a medical school alumnus and one hosted by the DeKalb County Health Center.

In a more distant setting, a village called Casse in Haiti, students and faculty have returned each year since 2006 to serve patients in a mobile clinic through Emory Medishare, a student-led organization affiliated with Project Medishare. They bring donated medications and supplies and treat hundreds of patients in just a few days. In addition to providing basiccare, they help educate patients about hygiene and nutrition and conduct research on malnutrition in children under 5.

Emory medical students also work hard to receive NIH-sponsored Fogarty Fellowships, allowing them to spend a year in countries such as India, Mali, and Brazil to do research on global health problems and to work with populations there who are in need. Only about 34 such awards are given each year, but Emory medical students have managed to receive fellowships for three years in a row.

         
  maura george  

Last year, internal medicine resident Maura George was part of the care team at publicly funded Grady Memorial Hospital for a 37-year-old immigrant from Mexico who was dying of untreated diabetes. Knowing he would not survive, the patient’s family asked if he could return to them in Mexico. George volunteered to accompany the patient on the bittersweet journey back home, where he died two days after arrival. “The trip was both heartwarming and sad,” says George, adding that it reaffirmed where she wants to practice. George is now an Emory faculty member at Grady.



 
         


Recognition for service

Emory University was honored last February with a Presidential Award for General Community Service, the highest federal recognition a college or university can receive for its commitment to volunteering, service learning, and civic engagement. Several medical school initiatives were among those in the successful award application, including the Pipeline Program, created by Emory medical students, which helps disadvantaged high school students learn more about science and medicine (careers they might not have previously considered), and Health Students Taking Action Together, also established by medical students, to engage health professional students at Emory and other schools in health issues confronting Georgia.

Contributing to the economy

Already a major contributor to the biotech start-ups and ancillary businesses that are among Georgia’s fastest-growing industries, Emory took new steps this year to help the state move closer to its goal to become a biotech leader. Over the past decade, Emory brought into the state more than $760 million in licensing revenues from drugs, diagnostics, devices, and consumer products. Its robust product pipeline includes more than products in all stages of development or regulatory approval, with 27 having reached the marketplace and 12 more in human clinical trials.

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